MADreads

Experience an amazing new graphic novel
A review of Anomaly by Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin

 Anomaly is a deliciously huge new graphic novel -- a title that very likely could shake up readers the way the first Star Wars transfixed movie goers. With strong characters and a wealth of fabulous aliens and special effects, it takes you away to other worlds. A sprawling, epic tale with gorgeous art and an interesting story, accompanied by some mind-blowing technological enhancements, I found Anomaly impossible to put down. Actually, it is pretty hard to ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on March 25, 2013 | 0 comments

Peeking through bamboo curtains
A review of Pyongyang by Guy Delisle

 Guy Delisle is a Canadian-born resident of France who has worked as an animator all over Europe and in Asia.  His peripatetic career has taken him to some unusual locations -- and he creates graphic novels documenting his sojourns. The first two are Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on March 18, 2009 | 0 comments

Meandrous trail of a murderess
A review of The Outlander by Gil Adamson

  A widow is being tracked by men with dogs, pursued through ditches and woods and rough fields.  She is young and scared and not entirely lucid.  Her escape is impeded by her heavy mourning clothes.  The men after her are relentless and terrifying, two massive and menacing redheaded twins, vigilantly chasing the woman who murdered their brother. Thus opens ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on February 26, 2009 | 0 comments

Baking, forgiveness
A review of Life, Death & Bialys by Dylan Schaffer

 Memoirs by adult survivors of dysfunctional families are a proliferating sub-genre, but this one is particularly appealing and readable.  Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on February 10, 2009 | 0 comments

Surprising fun from Côte d’Ivoire
A review of Aya by Marguerite Abouet

 Have you read any books set in Côte d’Ivoire? I hadn't.  There seems to be little written in English about this beautiful and interesting country, other than bleak news accounts of ongoing strife, economic hardship, poverty, and public health woes.  However, two recently translated graphic novels show Ivorians in a ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on January 26, 2009 | 2 comments

Gobbled up
A review of Eat Me by Kenny Shopsin

 My mother peruses cookbooks and cooking magazines continuously: forever searching for the perfect stuffing for Cornish hens, a new twist on saucing ham steaks, something novel involving bread pudding, or perhaps anything interesting involving guavas or persimmons.  I must have inherited this glitch from her, because I love to browse through cookbooks too (even though I almost never actually cook anything, thanks to a gracious partner). But I don't think I have ever ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on January 8, 2009 | 0 comments

"War? It's like this."
A review of Alan's War by Emmanuel Guibert

 Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope is an engaging and unusual war memoir. It is the story about a military experience that caused a boy to become a man -- a long and ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on December 26, 2008 | 0 comments

Winter's Bone
A review of Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

 Daniel Woodrell writes dark, unflinching tales about the rural poor, in a style he calls “country noir”. Not the slightest bit kitschy or sentimental, Woodrell’s beautiful writing in this sad and violent book caught me completely off-guard. He has created one of the most memorable teenage characters I have ever discovered in fiction -- and her story is spectacularly readable and rewardingly provocative. ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on December 1, 2008 | 2 comments

Real vampires
A review of Dark Banquet by Bill Schutt

 With the film version of the book Twilight opening this week, vampire fever seems to have descended on the nation.  "Vampy" fiction is in high demand and library hold lists are building.  While you wait, why not spend some time learning about real vampires?  They are very strange, interesting and often connected to your everyday life ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on November 18, 2008 | 0 comments

Mauldin: decidedly not maudlin
A review of Willie and Joe: the WWII years by Bill Mauldin

 Bill Mauldin's single-panel Army cartoons featuring the everyman infantrymen, Willie & Joe, are instantly recognizable to many people (even those of us born well after WWII).  Mauldin's 1945 book Up Front was one of the biggest best-sellers of the ...read more

Reviewed by Barbara - Alicia Ashman on September 18, 2008 | 0 comments

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